Sheep Industry News September 2024

Webinar Looks at Halal Slaughter

W hile many of the lamb processing plants in the United States slaughter lambs using the halal process, sheep producers might not be familiar with just what that means or how it is performed. Kathryn Piper of Five Pillars Butch ery in Maine led an ASI-sponsored webinar last month to provide some education on the topic. The Ins and Outs of Halal Slaughter covered a variety of Muslim teachings on the slaughter of animals – whether it be for consump tion or religious sacrifice. Halal itself simply means permissible. It includes sets of prescribed rules based in Islamic ethics which Muslims must follow. Most notable among them are dietary guide lines pertaining to food consumption and the way in which an animal is slaughtered – like the term Kosher in Judaism. Halal can also pertain to business practices, which include business transpar ency and ethical investments. Halal slaughter involves

permissible.” Piper added that isn’t the case, offering a religious rul ing published in the Khaleej Times as evidence of such. “Piercing or marking the ears of cattle for statistical purposes does not render an animal unfit for sacrifice, provided cut is no more than half the size of the ear. In fact, a Hadith (Prophetic tradition) confirmed the permissibility of marking the cattle for identification purposes. The Prophet (peace be upon him) himself used to brand his cattle to identify them for purpose of Zakat.” She went on to add that there is a difference between those animals intended for holiday sacrifices and those slaughtered for everyday consumption. “If you’re trying to sell animals for the holiday market, most Muslims would not buy an animal that had their tail docked or were castrated or had their horns cauterized when they were born. But tagging is permissible,” she said. In addition, stunning meth ods are not preferred in halal slaughter. “Although some countries preferred method and is allowed under religious exemption in the United States,” Piper said. Halal slaughter facilities also play a crucial role in the United States’ efforts to become certified scrapie free. “Our regulatory scrapie slaughter surveillance – which is so essential for surveillance for USDA to get the samples we need to show that we don’t have scrapie anymore in the U.S. – relies heavily on halal plants because they are big consumers of adult animals,” said Linda Detwiler of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. “We need adult sheep and goats for the slaughter surveillance program.” The webinar was made possible through cooperative agreement funding from USDA/APHIS, and is now archived at SheepUSA. org/growourflock-resources-educationalwebinars. That page offers archived versions of 45 webinars that provide a library of educational presentations on a variety of topics ranging from animal health to research projects to marketing American lamb. have made no stun slaughter illegal, forcing the halal meat industry to perform stunning methods prior to slaughter, no stun slaughter is still the

showing respect and kindness to the animal and recognizing the life being taken while also being grateful to the creator. Piper looked to dispel some preconceived notions that both Muslims and non-Muslims alike might have about halal require ments. “Many of you may have expe rienced pushback about tagging, and so I want to clear some of

that up tonight,” she said. “Or hopefully, I can give you some ad ditional information that you can move forward with. There’s a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about tagging animals for the halal market.” A lot of the misunderstanding comes from this verse in the Quran: “I will certainly mislead them and delude them with empty hopes. Also, I will order them and they will slit the ears of cattle and alter Allah’s creation. And whoever takes Satan as a guardian instead of Allah has certainly suffered a tremendous loss,” – 4:119. Piper described it as a conversation between Satan and Al lah, with a reference to pre-Islamic traditions. Pagans at the time used to cut the ears of their cattle in dedication to the gods they worshipped. “And so, there might be some Muslims who don’t understand the background and the history of that verse,” Piper said. “So, they take it to the extent that any type of marking on the animal is not

20 • Sheep Industry News • sheepusa.org